Embracing God’s ‘Nots’ - Fret Not (Daily Devotional)

Shalom, it's a delight to be here and to bring God's word to you. We are looking into God's word; we're looking into instructions scripture has for us. Beginning yesterday, we are looking at how can we embrace God's ‘nots’ as in the spelling of NOT. And yesterday we looked at fear not and today our focus is on fret not. Let's read from scripture from Philippians chapter, verses 6 to 7, ‘Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’ Fretting or maybe in words that we may know of which is worry is a natural human response. But God commands us not to be anxious/ to fret not. Again, this is not a mere suggestion, but it is a divine instruction. When God says do not fret or He says be anxious for nothing, He is inviting us to trade our anxiety, our fretting, our worry for His peace. So, what happens when we fret? It actually drains our energy, it saps us of all our energy, it makes us get into foolish decisions, it brings back fear like we saw yesterday and we function from that place of fear rather than faith. So, God sees that when we are in a position of fretting or worry, we move away from that trust or that hope in God and that's why this command of do not fret. So how do we fret not? Pray instead of worrying, that's what the verse says- by prayer and supplication and it says whenever we are anxious through prayer and supplication. So, remember that worry drains us but prayer strengthens us. Instead of letting our anxious thoughts get over us, we move them, we turn them into prayers. The second thing we need to do is to be thankful. It says by prayer and petition with thanksgiving we are to have gratitude because gratitude shifts our focus from our problems to the faithfulness of God. When we thank Him in advance, we are thanking Him for the goodness we are going to see. How else do we not fret? When we make our requests made known to God, it says, with thanksgiving make your requests known to God. It is a surrender. It is completely surrendering all that we may be worried about, fretting about to Him because He knows our needs and He invites us to bring them to Him. And the last thing that we see which is a promise in verse 7 is if we do not fret and if we pray and bring our supplication to God, make our requests known to God, it says that the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts. So, when we fret not, God fills us with this peace not as the world gives but supernaturally. So, as I urge you today, fret not and turn away your anxiety and your fretting and reach to the peace that He gives and He guides us into. Let's pray together, Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that gives us a way away from fretting and worrying, to turn our requests to you in prayer and petition with thanksgiving to make all our needs known to you. Thank you for the exchange that we have that you give us peace instead of that fret and worry. Thank you because you will guard our hearts through your name. We ask this, in Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you for tuning in to Living Supernaturally, for more resources to strengthen your spiritual walk, please visit apcwo.org.